This invention relates to improved machines for preparing beaten products, such as for example frozen food products prepared by beating fruit juices or other ingredients at low temperature, or other solid or liquid substances whose preparation includes subjection to a rapidly turning rotary beater unit.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,671,646 and 3,385,568 show a type of beater unit including a vertically extending refrigerator chamber and a beater assembly which is mounted in the chamber to turn about a vertical axis and which includes blades projecting into close proximity to the wall of the chamber. While the rotor is turning, the ingredients of a product to be prepared by the device are inserted into the upper end of the chamber, and as the ingredients fall downwardly they are agitated violently by the blades of the rotor to an extent forming a frozen food product similar to ice cream by the time the beaten substance is discharged downwardly from the lower end of the chamber into a cup or other receptacle. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,385,568, the blades are carried by the rotor at a location vertically between two spaced flanges formed on the rotor body, with retaining pins extending downwardly through the flanges at locations holding the blades against separation from the body.